One Shot: Concrete Angel
by Umagi Kasumi
Summary: Why hadn't they helped her? They neither new nor tried. Mild angst, but not enough to make someone cry. No pairings.


She held her bento – and the bento she'd packed for the other's (mainly Obito) – to her chest, making her way down the familiar path to the training fields. A gentle smile took form on her lips when she spotted her sensei and one of her fellow teammates –Hatake Kakashi. Rin, she knew would be arriving shortly. Obito, however, would not arrive for some time, as was usual routine for the lot.

"Ohayou," She greeted with a timid wave, going to set the bento boxes in their usual places by their sensei's seat on the ground.

"Ah! Natsumi-chan! What did you make for us today?" She jumped slightly, straitening herself and tugging on her sleeve nervously before answering.

"O-onigiri, curry, steamed rice w-with furikake… a-and a few apple slices, Sensei,"

_She walks to school with the lunch she packed  
Nobody knows what she's holding back  
Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday  
She hides the bruises with the linen and lace, oh_

"Really, that sounds good!" He grinned at her and she gave a small smile in return, tugging at her sleeve one more time before let her hand fall limply at her sides and hurrying off to stand with the others. Rin had already joined them, after all.

Minato's smile faltered a little and he tilted his head to the side by the slightest degree. Had that been a bruise he'd spotted on her wrist?

He shook his head. Of course there would be some small injuries on his students from when they decided to train on their own during the days. It was just a bruise; after all, it couldn't – and probably wouldn't – cause her very much pain.

Putting the petty matter aside, he leaned back and waited of his final student to decide to join them.

_The teacher wonders but he doesn't ask  
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask  
Bearing the burden of a secret storm  
Sometimes she wishes she was never born_

_Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone  
In a world that she can't rise above  
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place  
Where she's loved concrete angel_

Kakashi could hear her soft cries through his window as he went to close it and head off to bed. He hesitated for a moment, though, and listened for a moment more. Why was she crying? She'd seemed perfectly fine during training – just like she always did. But, then again, what right had he to intrude? After all, she had her mom there to comfort her if anything were to go wrong. And, turning around, he shut his window and turned off his lights.

It was a mistake he'd never forget.

"Does anyone know where Natsumi-chan is today?" Minato asked, "Kakashi?" He didn't find it too odd that Sensei had asked him, seeing as he _did _live next door to her, but he hadn't heard anything of her since the day before and he voiced as much.

"Maybe she's sick today?" Rin piped up.

"Well then, why don't we pay her a visit after training to see if she's well," No one objected with their sensei's suggestion.

_Somebody cries in the middle of the night  
The neighbors hear but they turn out the light  
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate  
When morning comes it will be too late_

_Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone  
In a world that she can't rise above  
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place  
Where she's loved concrete angel_

How had this happened? They didn't know. No one did. How had they not noticed? How had they not seen how much pain Natsumi endured everyday? Why…?

Their team stood around the weeping willow that shaded Natsumi's grave in silence. Beaten to death by her own mother, they'd found the poor girl slumped on the stairs in a puddle of her own blood. Shards of glass had been forced into her skin on impact with what they supposed had once been a sake bottle and bruises had covered nearly every inch of her skin. In fact, the bruise that Minato had seen on her wrist only the day before, much to his horror, had actually extended up from there to just about her elbow and had turned a sickening green in some places.

It was too late now and, out of all the thoughts that had been in their minds, only one stood out the most: Why hadn't they tried to help? And there was only one answer.

They'd never tried to.

_A statue stands in a shaded place  
An angel girl with an upturned face  
A name is written on a polished rock  
A broken heart that the world forgot_

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone  
In a world that she can't rise above  
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place  
Where she's loved concrete angel

**A/N: Sorry if I made Minato and Kakashi a bit OOC. Truthfully, I'm not all too interested in Naruto anymore – not since I was in fifth grade, anyway. I've never given much though to making song-fics either. So, I guess it would make one wonder why I even bothered to write something like this if the previous statements were true. **

**Well, as uneventful as it is, here's the story. I was bored and needed to waste some time, so I went on quizilla and went to look up stories about Hatake Kakashi. While I wasn't really interested in his character, I **_**was **_**interested in seeing some new stories that might have been written about him since I last checked – which is a good year or so. In doing so, I stumbled upon a song-fic titled **_**Concrete Angel**_**.**

**It sucked. Quite badly, might I add. **

**When I first began reading it, I thought the female character first mentioned was the one the song was about (and she was), but, in the end, it was a actually the writer (who had dubbed herself as Kakashi's 'sister' and inserted herself into the story as well) who died. And I was left with a dull what-the-hell expression. Because, the writer – Nikki as she'd named herself – had gone to the girl's (she didn't give the girl a name so I'll just be calling her Lin) house while Lin was on a date with Kakashi, apparently, and as soon as she opened the door Lin's **_**not drunken**___**mother came and just beats her to death. Just like that. **

**So I wrote one myself. And that's that… Yeah, I know, I'm lame. **


End file.
